I saw an orange VW Karmann Ghia on the road today.
Then while I was walking across a parking lot I almost got hit by a Ford Focus Electric backing out of a parking space. The Focus Electric was an older EV that predates the requirement that EVs make noise to alert pedestrians, and it was completely silent and I had basically no warning that the driver was about to back up when I stepped behind it.
I think it’s a flange to attach a hose to pipe the exhaust out of the building. I can understand why a pumper truck might need something like that, run the engine indoors while it fills with water, but why would the Chief’s SUV need it?
I saw a black one of those today, and a Lamborghini Aventador outfitted with a huge wing.
The most interesting vehicle I saw today was this rig, though. It’s some sort of 6x6 military looking truck pulling a pontoon boat. The logo on the front suggests it is a Stewart & Stevenson M1078, or similar.
Cool. I spotted one in February, a Stewart & Stevenson M1078. I know I have a picture of it around here somewhere…
Added: I found my pictures of it. I parked next to it in my green OBW. This was up on Donner Pass last February.
Cars and Coffee this morning was good. I took about 120 photos, in 3 imgur albums. For each album link I also post an interesting car from each album.
A VW Rabbit pickup
And my first 50 pics
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A right-hand drive Mini Cooper pickup
And my next 49 pics
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The Sunbeam Alpine is leaving
And my last 20 pics
The one I saw was behind a grocery store in a Denver suburb…
I agree that it sure seems like that’s what it is, there’s just so many reasons my brain is coming up with for why it shouldn’t be. In addition to what I mentioned above, you’d have to slide something rigid into it, like the way you’d connect a vacuum hose to an attachment, that just seems harder/slower to remove than being able to kick a hose off the tailpipe. And, with that, modern fire stations have exhaust hoses designed in such a way that the vehicles drive away with them still connected and they release on their own. If you tried that, even by accident, with this one, something’s going to break. IOW, at the very least, you’d think it would be on the rear, not the side. Plus, assuming there isn’t some station-specific logistical reason for it’s location, it’s about as far from the driver’s door as possible.
Having said all that, this is a modern Chevy Suburban/Tahoe with a gas (not diesel) engine, they have no difficulty starting in even the coldest weather Wisconsin is likely to see and it seems unnecessary just to keep the cabin warm.
And I know I said this earlier, but it also seems like having it mounted like that would either burn/damage or at least leave residue on the paint. Whatever it is, it appears to be, if not a one-off, at least rare. I can’t find anything similar on the internet.
My ex-BIL is a Fire Chief, if I think of it, I’ll have to ask him next time I see him.
We went to that Cars & Coffee event once before, on 11 Nov 2023. I sometimes log trivial things in my calendar, and I’d written that down. When I saw that on my calendar it gave me pause because the very next day is a date I’ll always remember: 12 Nov 2023 is when my wife almost bled out and died. I posted about that here ➜ CPR: how long with no revival before they stop CPR? ■ .
Today, some 18 months later, she is still in recovery. It has been a long road but fortunately it’s a good road on a good trajectory. She is still on full disability and we’re fortunate that her company has a good long term disability coverage. She cannot return to work because, while she does feel good enough to go to a Cars & Coffee, she still spends several hours during the day knocked out, sleeping and resting (yesterday afternoon she slept for a good 6 hours, and then we went to bed at 8 (yeah early) and she slept the whole night through).
I’ll share the pic of us yesterday morning at C&C:
Some here might recognize our ivory 356 behind us. And here is our group there, and our friends’ 2 Corvettes parked next to the 356:
We remain humbled and grateful for blessings great and small.
I finally got the license plate I wanted: M151 OBW. It was a long wait, about 4 months. (OBW = Outback Wilderness Edition)
The M151s were the old Marine Corps Jeeps of the 1980s (when I enlisted in 1980) before they were replaced by the old original Hummvees from the late 1980s, the ones that were popularized during Desert Storm. I drive my OBW like I drove those M151s and Hummvees (I ended up serving 14 years until getting my degree, then transitioned over to a civilian job in tech).
I had plates that were not very imaginative: OUTBAKK. Those will go onto my garage wall.
But I like what I have now: M151 OBW. The plate is near some badges I transferred from my Jeep:
∘ 1941: the 75th anniversary of Jeep (in 2016)
∘ Trail Rated, which my OBW basically is (almost, not quite but it’s getting there)
∘ 4x4, which isn’t quite true but I’m learning how nicely capable the OBW is out on the trails
I take my OBW to more crazy places than most Jeeps don’t even go.
Love the OBW!!
Nice 6x. You don’t want to get that stuck. You will have a really, really bad day. Or in that case a bad week.
My wife and I are moving to a new town to get out of elevation. Berthoud Colorado. A day does not go by when we don’t see a beautiful classic car. I guess it’s a thing here. Saw a perfect model A yesterday. And a couple of pickups from the 40’s and 40’s.
This morning, southbound on the 5 through Everett, WA at a little after six, I saw a yellow Aztek. I didn’t find it particularly ugly. Certainly not as ugly as a Cybertruck.
That’s practically at sea level! Hope the move goes smoothly for you.
The TFL ranch is in that area, and they have one or two Model T’s they play with. They took one up Pikes Peak a few months ago, and most recently to Moab.
Yeah, less than half our altitude.
The TFL channel looks great. I’m still setting up systems here. Don’t have sound yet.
Haven’t seen one of these in a while:
1966(?) International Harvester. The shiny chrome seems out of place. I wonder if it just held up that well or if someone replaced, or at least polished, it. Oddly, while looking at some pictures of other ones online to see what’s missing from the area just in front of the wheel well, I found someone posted a picture of the same exact truck on instagram. I can’t see much more than the thumbnail without an account, but he does appear to be from my area.
I saw a Lexus LC500 on the road this morning, a sporty-ish coupe. You don’t see many luxury coupes anymore (That’s apparently what the LC stands for – “luxury coupe”). Looking at the sales numbers in the Wikipedia article, it’s not a very common car, they’ve only sold a couple thousand per year in the US.
Subaru Baja
Still mighty disappointed they didn’t call it the BRAT II.
Nah, the Brat had more style.
Now that I look at it again, no, it didn’t. Boy, does that scream 70s.
Yeah that sure does scream 70s!
I didn’t realize that BRAT is an acronym for Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter. That’s a mouthful.
I remembered it was an acronym but not for what. Thanks!
Thank wiki!
